Understanding iCloud Storage Space Issues

Friday, 7/18/14

When iCloud performs a backup, it does not back up everything on your phone; instead it backs up everything that is deemed important. This means that if content has been synchronized by a computer of yours (like photo albums from iPhoto or Music from iTunes) it does not need to be backed up, as you have it somewhere else. One item that is deemed very important is your camera roll. Often we neglect to delete items from our camera roll because we prefer to have them on our phone so that we can share them when we are out with friends or family. You can help eliminate this error by deleting these items after importing them to a computer of yours.

If you turn on iCloud’s feature My Photo Stream, you will always have a copy of the last 1,000 images you have taken. This Photo Stream will synchronize with all of your devices and is not part of your back up space. If you prefer to have more than 1,000 images with you when you’re out and about, its easy to let iTunes put the exact same photos back onto your iPhone as an album. The advantage here is that your device will no longer see these pictures as backup items and your backup will shrink considerably.

For people who take a lot of photos regularly and perform the above steps, but still run out of space, Apple certainly offers larger space capacities, but it does not make sense to pay for more space just because you don’t know that you can transfer the photos off to your computer once in a while to save space.

Lastly, if you perform all of these steps, and your backup/camera roll is no longer to large for your iCloud space – you may still see the frustrating error. This is not because it didn’t work, or you did something wrong, but you may need to delete the pre-existing large back up to make room for the new smaller back up. This is because Apple does not delete the previous back up until after a new successful back up takes place, so your iCloud space will need room for both at the same time for at least a few minutes.

If you would like further assistance with an issue like this, or this exact issue; please reach out as we are eager to help.